“I hope I will learn to dance a different dance I’ve never danced before.”

“This is how we’re gonna do. We’re gonna dance the Nepali song. Cross left leg over right. One – two – three – go.” Then the movie song,  Kale Dai, blasted from the instructor Pujan Wagley’s phone through the school gym. Over the weeks, we moved from the Nepali dance into “Whatcha Gon Do With That Dessert.” And  Pujan, a student at Worcester State and a Bhutanese dancer, taught 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders hip hop moves to rapper Darwin’s song.  Students end with a flowy, traditional dance to  Ki Chhori hu ma.  This is a story about working with Pujan at Concord, NH’s Broken Ground School where I brought a poetry workshop, too – so together Pujan and I offered poetry and dance.  Our work was supported by a grant to the 21C After School program by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.

Here are some lines of poems students wrote about dancing with friends and with Pujan:

Pujan is one of the best dancers in the world.

When I dance I feel happy inside because

my body is moving.

I love dancing.

Sanjana

Pujan is so fun. I love dancing with Pujan

These are Pujan’s own words, “1 – 2 – 3 – Go.”

Then we start.

Soraya

My name is Molly. I drift

with the beat.

right, left, right, left.

Now repeat that a few times.

My name is Molly. I drift

with the beat.

No matter what, I keep dancing

Molly

When I dance with Pujan I feel…

Pink!

Happy!

Excited!

Silly!

Joyful!

Floating!

Fast!

Fun!

Esha

When I dance with Pujan he says,

like this,

left arm high,

then right arm high

Out of time.

Hakima

Put your left hand here and put your

right hand here. The girls do this

and the boys do this.

It is really fun to dance with Pujan.

Inaya

He says one foot at a time and move

your hips and, Always smile every time.

and, Don’t look sad. Be happy.

That’s why I love dancing.

Dolice

Dance is

fun

silly

weird

exciting

Emeline

When people dance with Pujan they feel like

they are about to fly in the Milky Way

because he can teach you how to do the dance

moves in a second. He doesn’t yell when you get

the moves wrong.

Tim

Dance feels like you could just

lift up into the clouds with

a mind of joy.

Bella

Well-loved volunteers who came to see the students perform at Parent’s Night and were awarded with flowers and art.

Of course we read lots of poems.  Here’s a reading list of ideas for a poem and dance celebration.

Seeds, Bees, Butterflies, and More, Poems for Two Voices.  We played with poems in two voices to feel the rhythm of movement back and forth between readers.

Arm in Arm – by Remy Charlip

I love this book for it’s crazy whimsy. The students didn’t move into stillness, but a way to imagine it comes from Remy’s poem:

(c) Remy Charlip

BEFORE ME PEACEFUL

BESIDE ME PEACEFUL

BEHIND ME PEACEFUL

ABOVE ME PEACEFUL

BELOW ME PEACEFUL

ALL AROUND ME PEACEFUL

ME PEACEFUL

Remy always makes me smile. Take “Riddle Joke:

“Ask me if I’m a boat. / Are you a boat? / Yes. Now ask me if I’m an airplane. / No, silly. I’m a boat.”

Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O’Neill  includes this poem we read like an echo chant.

“Colors dance

And colors sing,

And colors laugh,

And colors cry___

They make you feel

Every feeling there is.”

Honey, I Love by Eloise Greenfield  especially “Way Down in the Music”

This is Just to Say, poems of Apology and Forgiveness by Joyce Sidman

The title of our workshop was “Building Friendships Through Dance and Creative Writing” and this collection gave us ideas for writing about friends, including “Dark Haired Girl.”

You Read to Me I’ll Read to You by Mary Ann Hoberman.  I adapted the poem “New Friends”  in this collection and it inspired many students’ poems about meeting a new friend for the first time.

Congratulations Pujan, new friend, and kids at Broken Ground!

For another post I did on dance, please read, “Why Dance Each Other’s Dances” at the Multicultural Kid’s Blog.

Thank you Louise Wrobleski, formerly the NH Literacy Institute’s Site Director at the University of New Hampshire,  for her book and workshop recommendations!

“I hope I will learn to dance a different dance I never danced before.” Words by Bella, Broken Ground School, before we danced and we were imagining how it would be.